


San Diego's a Good City, but Do They Allow Gay Penguins to Marry?

by torigates



Category: Parks and Recreation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave returned to Pawnee ten months after shipping out for San Diego.</p>
            </blockquote>





	San Diego's a Good City, but Do They Allow Gay Penguins to Marry?

  
Dave returned to Pawnee ten months after shipping out for San Diego (though Leslie supposed he didn’t so much as ‘ship out’ as get on an airplane, or maybe drive. Leslie wasn’t too sure what mode of transportation Dave took when he left for the Army Reserves; she just liked to imagine him ‘shipping out’ because that is what people did when they joined the army).

Dave returned to Pawnee ten months after he left, and Leslie heard that news from no less than six different people before ten a.m. For the curious, the six were, in order she heard it from them: her mailman, Donna, Jerry, Tom, Ann, and Joan Callamezzo, asking if Leslie wanted to come on _Pawnee Today_ to do a segment about Dave’s return. Answer: No, she would not (but secretly, yes).

“Leslie!” Ron barked from his office.

She sighed, and walked over to his door. “Yes, Ron?”

“Dave is back.”

She was taken aback for a moment.

“Do you want to know why I know that piece of information?” Ron continued before Leslie could form a coherent thought.

“Um, yes?” she ventured.

“I heard it from six different people on my way into work this morning. Including Joan Callamezzo. She wanted to know if I wanted to issue a statement.”

Leslie briefly wondered if the other five were the same five who had broken the news to her. Probably not, knowing Pawnee. “I’m sorry?” she tired.

“You know I don’t like being involved in things,” Ron told her.

“I do know that, Ron,” she said. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t.”

Leslie started to walk out, but stuck her head back in. “You said no comment, right?” she asked.

Ron glared at her.

She went back across the office, and sat back down at her desk. The Harvest Festival had wrapped up just a few weeks earlier, and Leslie was still wading through all her new projects. She didn’t like to be without a specific project for very long, because she felt that having a task to focus on made her more productive. The more tasks she had, the more productive she was. That’s why it was Leslie’s motto (actually, her motto was, ‘waffles first’, but that was neither here nor there) to always have at least three projects going at any one time, with one larger, long term project. That was what she needed. A new long term project.

Her phone rang. “Leslie Knope.”

“Leslie, it’s Shauna Malwae-Tweep, from the _Pawnee Journal_. Would you care to make a statement on the return of your ex-boyfriend Dave Sanderson?”

Even though Leslie could think of at least three separate amazing headlines for such a story (and only two of them had a dirty pun on the word homecoming), she rolled her eyes. “No, I would not like to comment, Shauna. What is it, like the slowest news day ever?”

Then it was Shauna’s turn to mutter, ‘no comment.’

Ann ran in, looking out of breath. “Listen, Shauna, I’ve got to go,” Leslie said, hanging up the phone.

“Oh my god, Leslie,” she said. “Did you get my texts?”

“About Dave? Yes. Yes, I did, Ann.”

Ann nodded, looking relieved. She sat down in the seat across from Leslie, putting her elbows on the desk, propping her chin up on her hands, and looking eager for what Leslie was going to say next. Leslie stared back at her.

“Is that what you came here to ask me?” she asked eventually.

“Pretty much,” Ann admitted. “How do you feel? Are you going to see him again? Did he call you? What are you going to do next? What about Ben?”

“What _about_ Ben?” Leslie asked, and then shook her head when Ann opened her mouth to answer. “Why is the whole town freaking out about this?”

“Because you and Dave were adorable together. And now he’s back. And—”

Ben walked into Leslie’s office before Ann could finish her sentence. “Six people—seven if you include Donna just now—have told me that Dave your ex-boyfriend is back in town,” he gestured over his shoulder with his thumb to where Donna was sitting.

“Her _cop_ ex-boyfriend,” Ann added.

Leslie glared at Ann, and rose in her seat, to see Donna reading a magazine and trying to look innocent. The result was spoiled by Donna raising her eyebrows questioningly when she made eye contact with Leslie. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Ben.

“Please tell me one of those people wasn’t Joan Callamezzo,” Leslie pleaded.

Ben shook his head. “No can do,” he said.

Leslie slumped back into her seat and buried her head in her hands. “This is a disaster,” she moaned. She also made a mental note to the universe: when she said she wanted a new project, this was not what she had in mind.

“So what are you going to do?” Ben asked. His voice sounded funny.

“Why does your voice sound funny?” Leslie asked raising her head. Ben was leaning against her doorframe.

“My voice doesn’t sound funny,” he said, his voice sounding even funnier.

“Okay, Ben, I don’t have time to figure out why you’re acting weird. Ann, thank you for the news, you can go back to work. Everyone can go back to work!” she said the last bit loud enough for everyone to hear. Donna, Tom, April, and Andy all looked away quickly. Like that ever fooled anyone into thinking they weren’t eavesdropping.

“I—I’ve got to go,” Leslie said gathering her things. She needed to deal with this situation before it completely overshadowed the entire Parks Department.

“Ben’s voice sounds funny because he’s jealous!” Ann called after her as she left.

She heard Ben mutter a strangled, “What?” Leslie paused, but ultimately kept moving. She could deal with Ben’s potential jealousies after she dealt with Dave.

Parked outside Dave’s house, Leslie suddenly felt nervous. She hadn’t spoken to Dave since he left almost a year ago. He hadn’t called her to say he was coming, or to let her know he had arrived. If it weren’t for the rest of the town sticking their noses where they really didn’t belong, Leslie wouldn’t even have known Dave was in Pawnee. Maybe he didn’t want to see her?

But she had driven all this way, it made no sense to turn back now. She got out of the car, and walked up his driveway to the entranceway. When she rang the bell, Dave opened the door. He smiled, and Leslie thought that was a good sign.

“Just good old-fashioned showing up drunk at a guy’s house in the middle of the day,” she said with a grin.

His smile faltered a little. “Uh, hi.”

“I’m just kidding,” Leslie reassured him. “I’m not drunk.” She let out a small snort with her laugh.

“I didn’t think that you were,” Dave said, smiling affectionately. “You’re much more belligerent when you’re drunk.”

“You remembered!” Leslie said, oddly touched that he had.

She held out her arms, and Dave leaned in for a hug. Leslie wrapped her arms around his neck, and his went around her waist. The two of them stood there for a long moment, and she rested her head on his shoulder. His arms tightened around her, and she leaned into him. He rubbed her back, and buried his face in the crook of her neck. Suddenly, it all came rushing back to her. It was easy for Leslie to remember how great of a boyfriend Dave had been. How much fun they’d had together, how much he had liked her and how much she liked him. And yes, they hadn’t spoken in a long time, but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t missed him. Because she had. A lot.

Leslie pulled back from their hug, and opened her mouth to say something, she wasn’t quite sure what (though, probably to warn him about how crazy people were going). Before she got the chance, Dave took a step forward into her space, and placed his hand gently at the base of her throat, his thumb stroking softly at her collarbone. He leaned in slowly, and Leslie took an involuntary step backwards, her back hitting the doorframe. She could feel her pulse beating rapidly against Dave’s hand, which felt warm and large and solid against her neck. He kept leaning closer and closer until finally their lips met. He kissed her softly, his other hand clutching at her hip, and Leslie put her hands on his waist, pulling him closer and kissing him back.

He ran his hand down her torso, and Leslie’s hands clasped at his sides, not wanting to let go. He rested his forehead against hers, and Leslie moved her hands to cup his face, smiling at him. He pressed another brief kiss on her lips.

“You know, uh, Joan Callamezzo called me?” he asked when they separated. “She wanted to know if I wanted to give a statement about my return to Pawnee.”

Leslie cringed. “It’s been a slow news day,” she explained.

Dave smiled down at her.

“I hope you said no comment,” she said seriously after a moment.

“I did,” he reassured her, equally serious.

“I’m sorry,” she said shaking her head. “It’s just been a crazy morning, and everyone is telling me that you’re back, and things are still crazy at work.” She continued to babble on about work and the number of people who told her about Dave’s return. He put his hand at the small of her back and ushered her into the kitchen in her house, and started mixing waffle batter as she told him about the Harvest Festival, and everything that had happened in the Parks Department and her life since he had been gone.

He listened, and put the waffles on the iron, and Leslie felt a wave of affection and longing wash over her. She wondered where they would be if he had never left Pawnee, or if she had somehow gone with him to San Diego when he left.

He had left, though, and Leslie knew that she could never have asked him to say, as much as she could never have left Pawnee. It was her home, and she belonged here. They had bad timing that was all.

“Are you back?” she asked him. “For good, I mean?”

Dave put a plate of waffles in front of her, with her favourite kind of syrup, and a can of whipped cream. “No,” he said.

Leslie suddenly had to fight back tears. To distract her, she put a mountain of whipped cream on top of her waffles. That usually worked when she needed to feel better, and scooped some into her mouth with her finger.

“They offered me a job at the SDPD,” he told her. “I came back to sell my house.”

“Well,” she said. “Congratulations. That’s really exciting, Dave. I hear they have a great zoo down there,” she paused and tried to smile. It was surprisingly hard considering the amount of breakfast food she had in front of her. “Do they let their penguins get married in gay weddings?” she asked.

Dave chuckled. “I can find out.”

They ate breakfast in silence, and when they were done, Dave hugged her again, and Leslie held on a little longer than was strictly professional. He didn’t seem to mind.

“If you’re ever in San Diego, look me up,” he said.

Leslie nodded and kissed him on the cheek. If she had to wipe away a few tears as she drove back to the office, well, no one was there to see.

“Everything okay?” Ben asked when she was settled behind her desk again. He had wandered into her office only minutes after she got back.

Leslie smiled, looking up from where she was rummaging for papers in her drawer. “Yeah, everything is fine.”

“So, uh, Dave,” Ben said. “Is he your boyfriend?”

“No,” Leslie told him. “He’s only here for a few days.”

“Oh,” he said. This information seemed to make him happy. “Are you alright?” he asked after a brief pause.

She smiled. “Yeah, I will be.”

“Let’s get back to work,” he suggested.

“Gladly.”


End file.
